Middletown Church Holds Candlight Vigil For Homeless

ERIK HESSELBERGSpecial to the Courant

A candlelight vigil for the homeless was held at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Middletown

MIDDLETOWN — Community leaders attempted to put a face on homelessness Thursday during a candlelight vigil at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, where more than 200 people gathered to pay tribute to the city's homeless who died in 2014.

They sang songs, prayed and lighted candles for 28 people who were members of the community, but are now gone. Many filling the sanctuary of the huge Gothic-style church on Main Street were among the homeless, or, like Gary Poitras, had spent years on the streets.

"I pushed a shopping cart around these streets for years," said Poitras, who is no longer homeless. "In it was all my belongings." In memory of those years, and to underscore the plight of those living on the streets, Poitras' shopping cart was displayed near the altar.

The vigil is held each year in recognition of National Homeless Persons Memorial Day on Dec. 21. Similar events take place in 150 communities across the country.

The Middletown vigil was jointly sponsored by St. Vincent DePaul, which operates a soup kitchen and shelters, and Community Health Center Inc.

"Homelessness breathes down my neck every day," Ebony Lockhart, 44, told the audience packed into the church. "I was homeless half my life. I slept in abandoned cars and on park benches in the middle of winter. Homelessness is living on a knife-edge."

The Rev. Dana Campbell, pastor of Holy Trinity, delivered the opening and closing prayer. Also attending were Deputy Mayor Robert Santangelo and state Rep. Matt Lesser, D-Middlefield.

Sister Patricia McKeon, former director of the soup kitchen, told the audience that she had no concept of homelessness when she began working in Middletown 30 years ago. She said she first became aware of the problem when she observed that one of her soup kitchen regulars arrived one cold winter morning with his hair frozen.

"I realized then he had been sleeping outside," she said.

After that, McKeon said the soup kitchen began opening its dining room at night so people could at least stay warm.

"That was our first shelter," she said. "I don't want to knock charity, but charity will never end homelessness. Only justice can end homelessness."

Ron Krom, director of the soup kitchen, read the 28 names of those being remembered and asked the audience to respond in Spanish, "presente," which he said seemed more appropriate. "This is a chance to give voice to all those friends who have passed — to acknowledge their presence," Krom said.

Poitras said he knew nearly every name on the list. "I didn't know them all by their first names, but I knew them," he said. "They were my friends."